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The Indian Eye
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40 SEPTEMBER 24, 2021

toronto international film festiVal

Paka was inspired by the mahabharata,

says director nithin lukose

renu Mehta 1950s, just after India’s indepen- I recollected these memories

Toronto dence, there was migration to and made it into a film.
this place. Lot of people migrat- Q. What does the title - Paka
ithin Lukos is the di- ed from South to North for agri- - mean? Why did you choose this
rector of the film Paka culture, for survival. For instance, particular title for the film?
N(River of Blood) that de- my grandmother who is 85 years Paka means vengeance in
buted at the recent Toronto In- old still remembers lot of inci- Malayalam. That’s how I started.
ternational Film Festival (TIFF) dents that happened, how it was The title Paka came from the
held from September 9 to 18, difficult to survive. Mahabharata, from Ashwatha-
2021. The film, produced by An- The love story is part of the ma who got a curse from Lord
urag Kashyap and Raj Racha- fiction. That is a cinematic thing Krishna that he will wander in
konda, had its world premiere that I added to the film, but fami- the world forever, he will never
at the 46th edition of TIFF and graduate and the sound designer lies definitely used to have issues. die. He is like a chiranjeevi (im-
is an emotionally driven story of of Thithi and Sandeep Aur Pin- Q Were the perpetrators ac- mortal), he will be with human-
two feuding families that live in ky Faraar speaks about the film, tually caught and did jail time? ity for ever. That’s how it was

Wayanad, North Kerala. A riv- the title and the journey of the In the film, you show one person - formed as story.
er through the village holds the film from concept to completion. Uncle Kochappan going to jail Q. How did you decide on the
dark secrets of their dissension Q. What inspired the film? Kochappan’s character is in- conclusion of the film that implies
while a young couple from the How much of the story is based on spired by someone who actually that the feuding continues?
opposing families attempts to true events? went to jail, but the incident hap- We had different endings shot
heal the wounds with their love My grandmother is a great pened some years back. When for the film. The actual ending
story. story teller; she would tell me he came back from jail, the other was the one in which the killings
The film was inspired by the stories about dead bodies and family was waiting for him and stopped and it was happy. The
stories told to Lukos by his 85- the feuds. Most of the stories the very next day when he landed, ending that we have now was
year old grandmother who he were to do with people’s strug- they killed him. This character actually a scene in the script, but
says is an excellent story teller, gle and survival and how they was influenced by this memory. when we edited, we changed the

narrating the tales from the past became violent after fighting Q. The person who plays Jose order. I think the scene towards
that went on to influence the film- their fate, may be. And the com- who fishes the bodies out of the wa- the end is important because the
maker to create his first feature. munist Naxalism movement was ter - is very distinctive. Can you feuding never ends. When you
“I had a fantastic team,” says also taking place in Kerala. I was elaborate on his character? look at humanity, at Homo sapi-
Lukose who completed the film influenced by many things and The man Jose who takes ens, it is never ending, it goes on
with mostly first time actors many are based on true events. out the dead bodies from the for ever. We never stop. And this
and crew in 30 days. “Raj and The river is real, the happenings river is real. His younger son is still going on in the world in
I showed the first cut to Anurag in the river are real. People used is my classmate and we studied the name of terrorism, violence
Kashyap and he was really pos- to kill and dump the dead bodies together in School. I remember between countries. Our whole
itive about it and thought there in the river. I was also perhaps him as a young boy retrieving life is like that – fighting against
was potential. Anurag knew this influenced by the Mahabharata a dead body. My father was a somebody. That’s why the West
was very personal cinema and and Shakespeare too. I was not police officer and I remember is prosperous because they don’t
he wanted to support filmmak- trying to make a Shakespear- he was also there but the police want to fight any more because
ers who make such films. He ean drama, but eventually it or the firefighters don’t want to they are done after going through
also suggested many edit chang- happened like that. In the Ma- get into the deeper trenches be- two World Wars. Europe is done
es. After the second cut, we cut habharata too, this existed – two cause they don’t know the river with fighting because they lost
down the film from almost 2 families fighting each other. The and it can be dangerous. So they everything in the wars. But the
hours and to 1:40 hours. Anurag film is a combination of reality used to call these local experts to East is still confused and is trying
really helped us and later came and fiction. come and get the bodies. Jose to figure it out. This was the ba-
on as a producer. ” Q. Did you personally know the was someone who does that. I sic idea that was going on in my
In a phone interview from families that carried out the rivalry? also had a distant relative who mind when I decided on the con-
India with Renu Mehta, de- Many families had rivalries. died and his body was retrieved. clusion because that’s the reality,
but filmmaker Lukose, an FTII This was happening from the These memories were there and that’s the truth.

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